updated 11:55 am EST, Mon December 1, 2008

Net Apps Share Nov 2008

New research data today from Net Applications has revealed both Apple and Mozilla bringing Microsoft's share of the web to historic lows for November. The Mac's usage share of the more than 40,000 websites tracked by the Internet firm has now reached 8.87 percent for the past month; the increase is a major jump from the previous record of 8.23 percent in September and is enough to have pushed Microsoft's Windows below 90 percent usage online for the first time in years.

Linux only contributed slightly to Microsoft's decrease and recovered from a sudden drop in October to reach 0.83 percent. However, iPhone share on Net Applications' tracked sites also climbed to a new record of 0.37 percent from 0.33 percent the month before.

Independently of the operating system, Microsoft has also taken hits from rival web browsers. Usage of Mozilla's Firefox has topped 20 percent for the first time (up from 19.97 percent to 20.78 percent) and has been the largest single contributor to a decline in Internet Explorer share, which has again reached a years-long record low at just 69.77 percent of Net Applications' view of the web. The researchers attribute the spike partly due to the timing of special events like the US presidential election and to an extra number of days off helped by Thanksgiving, all of whom contributed to heavier web use.

Apple's Safari and Google's new Chrome browser have also supported the downfall of the Microsoft browser. Safari jumped from 6.57 percent in October to 7.13 percent in November while Chrome moved up slightly from 0.74 percent to 0.83 percent.